Author: Tim Stephens
-
UC Santa Cruz to offer computer game design as a new track for computer science students
The development of interactive computer video games has become a multi-billion-dollar industry that caters to the legions of gaming enthusiasts with a steady output of new games featuring ever greater levels of technical sophistication. For students whose interest in games goes beyond merely playing them, the University of California, Santa Cruz, now offers the opportunity…
-
National Public Radio science correspondent Richard Harris to speak at UCSC on Wednesday, April 6
Award-winning journalist Richard Harris, science correspondent for National Public Radio, will speak at UC Santa Cruz on Wednesday, April 6, as part of a distinguished lecturer series. Harris, a UCSC alumnus, will give a talk entitled “Telling Tales Out of School: How One Reporter Cracks the World of Science.” The event, which is free and…
-
UCSC engineering dean Steve Kang appointed to blue ribbon panel on nanotechnology
Steve Kang, dean of the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been appointed to the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology (BRTFN), a joint federal-state venture to benefit Silicon Valley and promote California as the premier center for nanotechnology research, development, and commercialization. The BRTFN is cochaired by…
-
Survey finds silver contamination in North Pacific waters, probably from industrial emissions in Asia
The highest levels of silver contamination ever observed in the open ocean turned up in samples collected during a survey of the North Pacific in 2002. Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, measured silver concentrations 50 times greater than the natural background level. Though still well below levels that would be toxic to…
-
Friends of Long Marine Lab will honor photographer Frans Lanting with Global Oceans Award
The Friends of Long Marine Lab will present a Global Oceans Award to renowned nature photographer and conservationist Frans Lanting at the group’s annual Gourmet Dinner benefit event on Sunday, March 20. The award recognizes Lanting for his outstanding contributions to public awareness of the natural environment. Awards will also be presented to two promising…
-
Scientists concerned about potentially harmful algae persisting in Monterey Bay
A species of microscopic algae that caused “red tides” in Monterey Bay last summer, discoloring the water and killing mussels, is still present in water samples from the bay and has the potential to cause more serious problems, according to scientists involved in a Central Coast ocean monitoring program. “This species has been seen before…
-
Genome centers combine forces to validate a gene set for biomedical research
The advent of online databases to access the human genome has been a boon to biomedical research, and the usefulness of this information has just moved to a new level. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and the Wellcome Trust…
-
Ocean scientist Mary Silver to give annual Faculty Research Lecture at UCSC on Thursday, March 10
Professor of ocean sciences Mary Silver will give the annual Faculty Research Lecture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on Thursday, March 10. Her lecture, titled “A Naturalist’s View: Toxic Algae in the Coastal Ocean,” will begin at 8 p.m. in the Colleges Nine and Ten Multipurpose Room on the UCSC campus. The event…
-
Teaching undergraduates to think like researchers-new approaches emerge from experimental teaching lab at UCSC
Scientific experiments commonly yield confusing or conflicting results, and part of a researcher’s job is to incorporate such findings into a coherent framework that sheds some light on the subject under investigation. But this aspect of science rarely makes it into the classroom, where students spend a lot more time on established facts and concepts…
-
New findings lead researchers to question basic assumptions of fisheries management
Biologists speaking at a symposium in Washington, D.C., last week warned that fundamental assumptions underlying current fisheries management practices may be wrong, resulting in management decisions that threaten the future supply of fish and the long-term survival of some fish populations. The symposium, organized by Steven Berkeley of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and…
-
New satellite observations of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes reveal surprising features of mysterious blasts from Earth
A particle accelerator operates in Earth’s upper atmosphere above major thunderstorms at energies comparable to some of the most exotic environments in the universe, according to new satellite observations of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are very short blasts of gamma rays, lasting about one millisecond, that are emitted into space from Earth’s…
-
UCSC oceanographer Kenneth Bruland honored by two major scientific organizations
Kenneth Bruland, professor and chair of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has received two major honors this year: He was elected as a 2005 fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was chosen to receive the 2005 Clair C. Patterson Medal for Environmental Chemistry from the Geochemical Society. Bruland currently holds…